Examining the Relationship between Religiosity, Alcohol Consumption and Violent Behaviour in Young Adults in North West England

Existing literature on the topic of religiosity and violent behaviour is still underdeveloped and much of the research is concentrated on Christian religiosity. Most of the literature on the topic suggests that religiosity acts as a protective factor for violent behaviour. The mechanisms through which this effect is seen however, are still poorly understood, though there are a wealth of criminological theories to provide a foundation upon which to hypothesize. The present study employs a quantitative approach to investigate the relationship between religiosity, alcohol consumption and violent behaviour. Explanatory, self-report questionnaires were distributed to 226 undergraduate students at one university in North West England in the year 2016 and unlike most previous studies on the topic, the present study did not exclude participants based on their religion, additionally including those who do not have a religion to act as a control group of sorts. Overall, findings were largely consistent with those of previous research, with religiosity being found to have negative correlations with both violent behaviour and alcohol consumption. The relationships between religiosity and nine risk factors for violent behaviour and were additionally investigated, the results of which were varied. Furthermore, the present study concludes that religiosity does not have consistent effects across all religious groups, and that any findings concerning religiosity cannot be generalised to any religious group other than those investigated.